Design and Art Australia Online

painter, was born in Leicester and studied at the Manchester School of Art. He visited NSW in 1888, coming out to Sydney on the sailing ship Thomas Stevens . In April 1999 Christie’s auctioned his oil on canvas Morning aboard Ship believed to have been executed en route (est. $18,000-$20,000). In 1889 the National Art Gallery of NSW purchased his watercolour Dinner in the Fo’castle from the NSW Art Society. 'A big, genial Bohemian who could sing and tell a yarn with the best’, Lister Lister recalled in his memoirs (quoted by Moore), he 'did much to enliven the depressed art climate of New South Wales’. The late 1880s in Sydney, said Lister Lister, 'was a great time for black and white artists but a poor one for painters. The arrival of H.S. Hopwood from England in 1888 brought a welcome change, and later on when Streeton and Roberts came over from Victoria, things seemed to go ahead’ (Moore, quoted Christie’s catalogue). During the 2-3 years Hopwood was in Sydney he exhibited many watercolours of Sydney Harbour and the NSW countryside with the Art Society and became a prominent member of its sketch club.

Hopwood returned to England in 1890. In 1891 he studied under Bougereau and Ferrier at Julien’s Atelier in Paris. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1892 {et al.}, as well as with the Fine Arts Society, primarily showing genre scenes. The Chantrey Bequest trustees purchased his Industry for London’s Tate Gallery in 1894. He was a member of the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) and an Associate of the Royal Watercolour Society (ARWS).

Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1999

Last updated:

2011